Love Beads Quilt

Have you noticed all the groovy 1970’s inspired fashions that are hitting the stores? Bright and wild colors dominated the scene and what hippie didn’t own love beads during the ’70’s! The “Oh, My!” line of fabrics by Sanae reminds me so much of the psychedelic fabrics of that day! This lap-size quilt celebrates the era in a fun and creative way! I’m Carla Timberlake from Lollyquiltz and this is my first Bake Shop pattern. I hope that you enjoy it!

The Love Bead Quilt is made with two simple blocks, the bead block and the chain block.

MAKING THE BEADS:

Place a 1.5 in. background square in each corner of the 3.5 in. x 5 in. Oh, My! rectangle. Sew across the background squares on the diagonal.

*Hint: Crease the square on the diagonal or draw a line for better accuracy when stitching, if desired.

Using chain sewing will make this step go faster! You will end up with at big stack that looks like this!

Next, using scissors or your rotary cutter, trim off the corners, leaving a 1/4 inch seam.

*Hint: If your stitching line is not quite on the diagonal line, you can trim out just the background corner from the middle, leaving the print corner to keep the block square. Your seam will be a bit more bulky if you choose this.

Press the background corners up toward the outside on each bead block.

MAKING THE CHAINS:

Choose 42 of the 1.5 in. x 5 in. strips that you cut from the charm squares. Lay them, right sides together (RST) along 6 of the 1.5 in. WOF background strips. You can get 8 charm strips on each background strip. Sew the charm strips along the background strips with a 1/4 in. seam.

*Hint: Test to be sure that you are making an accurate 1/4 in. seam before beginning.

Press the seams toward the charm strips.

Use your rotary cutter and ruler to cut across the background strip even with the charm strips to 5 inches.

Begin by choosing 12 beads and lay them aside. (You will use these later to complete the long rows.) Now, using the 68 short chain sections that you cut in the step above, pair up a chain section with a bead and sew them together using a 1/4 in. seam. Mix and match the prints for a fun look. Press seams open. Your bead/chain blocks should look like this:

Now for the really fun part! This type of quilt is called a strip quilt because the blocks are set together, end to end, creating strips. Then background strips, or sashings, are sewn in-between the block strips. Begin laying out the bead/chain blocks to create 9 long rows.

1. Use 8 blocks to create 5 rows, beginning with a bead at the top. At the end of these rows, add a single bead from one of the ones you laid aside above. Now you will have 5 chains of 9 beads, beginning and ending with a bead. Sew together and press the seams open.

2. Create 4 rows using 7 blocks, beginning with a bead at the top. At the end of these rows, add a single bead from one of the ones you laid aside above. Now, add a 3.75 in. chain piece to the beginning and the end of each of these 4 rows. You will now have 8 beads in these 4 rows, beginning and ending with a long chain piece. Sew together and press seams open.

*Hint: You will have 3 beads left over. You could piece them into the backing, just for fun!

3. Using a design wall (or even the floor) is a great way to move around the beads to get a pleasing combination. The 10 LOF background strips that you cut at the beginning of this pattern will be used to separate the long bead chains in the quilt top. Measure several long bead strips and cut the sashing strips to that measurement.

*Hint: You can use an average if the lengths vary slightly.

4. You can lay out the strips in any way that you like, but use a 3 in. background strip on the outside edges and alternate the 9 bead rows with the 8 bead rows. Use the cover picture, or the ones below, as a layout guide. Some of the bead stings will be closer together, depending on where you use the 1.5 in. sashing or the 3 in. sashing.

5. Once you have the rows laid out how you like them, sew them together and press seams toward the sashing pieces.

*Hint: The back of a flannel tablecloth makes a great, portable design wall. You can fold it up with the blocks laying on it and they will stay put.

BORDERS:

Fold the background/border fabric in half crosswise and cut. Each section will then be approx. 60 in. long. Using one section, cut (4) LOF 4.5 in. strips. Use these to make the outside borders, measuring across the middle and then cutting the borders to fit that measurement. Add the side borders first and then the top and bottom.

BACKING AND BINDING:

Piece together the remaining backing fabric to create a backing 3 in. larger than the quilt top all the way around. Layer with batting and quilt as desired. Use the binding fabric to make a French binding by cutting strips 2.25 in. wide. Fold and press in half after sewing them together end to end on the bias. Bind the quilt.

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The individual designers featured on this website ultimately hold the copyright for their projects and designs posted on the Moda Bake Shop. Patterns are not intended for sale or digital distribution. All items made from Moda Bake Shop patterns are for personal, non-commercial use only, unless given explicit written permission from the design owner to sell finished products made from their pattern tutorials featured on the Moda Bake Shop.